SHE SCREAMS by Dennis Doph

touchdown jesus. 13

Here on our block in Suburbia's Dell
We suffer through one little slice of hell
Our neighbor (a certified psychologist)
Has one good reason to ball up a fist
A little blond daughter who's onto Mom's tricks
and screams from the joy of being six.

She screams before it's light enough to see
Screams from the sensation of being She
Screams when her brother brutalizes her
Screams when anybody chastises her
Screams on her trips to the end of the drive
Screams because she's no longer five
Screams when she meets the other brats on the block
or when someone tries to clean her dear little clock.

Meanwhile, her neighbors, in terms slightly squalid,
Would like to give this charmer something more solid
Really make the bitch scream until she drops
With an unprepossessing slap to the chops.

But in politically correct, child-worshipping Santa Barbara
Such a person would be thought to be a Demon Harborer
Probably a masher, or at least a mascist
At the very least some kind of a Fascist
Or a purveyor of some illegal form of smut
When all we really want to do is kick some butt!

While this tiny tot is practising her Primordial Shout
All we really want to do is drown her out
For reasons not quite shitty (or marginally merde-y)
All day long we play Wagner or sometimes Verdi
And we dream for a place in our fathomless dreams
Where we'll no longer hear these Babygirl screams.

And we shudder (while we dream of a screamless heaven)
of what volume she might fetch when she is seven.